11/17/2024
In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, I wanted to share some of the more interesting things I have learned about decorated jars and bowls that were made by Native Americans about a thousand years ago in what is now the state of Arizona. The two broken pieces of a decorated jar with the painted interlocking spiral pattern at the top of the image represents a kind of pottery archaeologists call “red-on-buff” based on the color of the paint (red) and the color of the clay (buff). For centuries the people archaeologists call the Hohokam who lived throughout most of central and southern Arizona made red on buff pottery to be used as serving ware and was traded over long distances and given as gifts. Similarly, the jar fragment at the bottom with the opposed solid and hatched painted designs represents a kind of pottery known as “black-on-white” for reasons you may have already guessed (black paint against a white background) and was made by the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived throughout northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and southern Utah. Both kinds are iconic; when archaeologists find red on buff colored bowls and jars in northern Arizona it usually means they were either traded over long distances, or people who learned how to make red on buff pottery migrated from southern Arizona to northern Arizona, and when archaeologists find black on white bowls, jars, pitchers, and mugs in southern Arizona it means they were probably traded from northern Arizona. Why were there such distinct pottery making traditions in Arizona you might ask? One of the main reasons was because of geology. The clay in southern Arizona tends to fire a light reddish brown or buff color, while the clays in northern Arizona tend to fire a light gray or white color.
